My family is too dull for there to be any really drama, but my nieces are making up for it with daily teenage drama.

Which makes me want to laugh and laugh at my sister, because I am not very nice and she deserves it.

The great thing is, Erin, that by not going the ultra-glam route you were able to show her up by just being yourself and being better at life in general, thus depriving her of the satisfaction she'd get from you trying to show her up.

It helps that Erin's base-level glam is pretty high.

I've decided to rotate watching different versions of A Christmas Carol every year. So we watched the musical version - Scrooge - with Albert Finney from 1970 last night. I saw this in theaters when I was a kid.

Finney's not the greatest Scrooge. He sort of plays him like he's got a toothache the whole time. But he's too good an actor to ruin the role or anything. And the music is good, and the production is excellent, and there are Victorian Street Urchins (tm) who say "Thank you, guv'nor."

This production probably has my favorite Cratchit family, though. Very winning, and a likeable Tiny Tim are key. Also it has the rousing "Thank You Very Much" song which is practically the "76 Trombones" of 1970 and had Matilda dancing around the living room.

JZ is parked directly in front of the heater trying to warm herself. We're both sucking up coffee and nibbling on toasted banana bread slathered in butter. We've got a lot of cleaning to do before EM and Emmett come over. EM will make the xmas eve dinner (Matilda and Emmett have lobbied hard for duck). She'll spend the night, and Emmett will sleep on the couch in front of the xmas tree which he loves.

It'll be a good xmas morning because Emmett is going to Flip Out With Joy when he gets his present. He's been such a trooper this year dealing with all the early commutes via BART by himself (it's really hard on a 15 y.o. to get up at 5:30am) that I asked JZ's family to combine their moneys for one mega present. We were just going to get a refurbished 1.0 iPad, but his uncles in NYC decided they'd make up the difference and he's getting the new one.

I need to get a few more stocking stuffers but that won't require a trip to the Mall.

Unfortunately all the family drama this year is caused by illnesses: brother's cancer (still secret from Mom), aunt has a concussion and can't travel, Mom herself on 24/7 oxygen and feeling like she's starting to circle the drain. Also other brother still on temporary disability because of neural issues with his arm/hand. That's a lot of ouchies for a small family. I guess I should be glad there's no lifestyle troubles to add to the mess.

I'm bored. I did have some kind of stomach bug, and I'm feeling mostly better, but not quite better enough to go to the only thing I was invited to, which is a dinner in the city where the only vegan thing on the menu is salad.

Which makes me want to laugh and laugh at my sister, because I am not very nice and she deserves it.

This made me giggle.

I don't think we have much by way of family drama these days.

My family is mostly drama-free (small interpersonal dramas aplenty, sure, but what family doesn't have those?). The only big giant scandal was a few years ago, when my cousin who was married to an Orthodox priest stumbled on proof that he'd been having lots of sex with various members of the congregation (any gender, but all adults, so, bully for him, I guess?), including over the past year when she'd been going though chemo and radiation for breast cancer and still virtually solo parenting their three kids because being a priest was just so, so time-consuming and exhausting.

But that was a few years ago, and he is safely an ex. Still generating drama (lousy at support payments, having shit fits because his brother and SIL have had the audacity to still be friends with the kids, and similar assishness), but at a slight remove, and the actual blood relatives continue to be tediously proper and pleasant and faithful, with nothing more scandalous than unpaid library fines.

I am not accomplishing what I need to.

Instead I am sitting on the sofa.

I need to wrap presents and pack. Also get dresssed. And probably eat something.

my family is pretty drama free. I am sure I am the gossip, what with being the over-educated one who can't keep a job or support herself. But no one is mean, they are all very supportive which is lovely and hard at the same time. I'd very much like to sit in a warm hole and have people toss a few gifts and food down to me.

Instead, today I am taking a friends' children shopping because I discovered last night that neither had bought their mother gifts. SHe is in the middle of a divorce, has no immediate family in the area and the thought of her having no gifts was more than I could imagine. ALso, I get the feeling these kids have never been tasked with buying gifts themselves before. AT 10 and 15, they need to learn to do this. Just like gratitude has to be taught, so does gracious and thoughtful giving. Then the children's production at 5:30 at church, mac has some lines and a few solo lines in a song. He is the gold giving king.

I'm seeing a friend tonight who just got engaged. I don't really care for the fiancé, but whatever, not me who's marrying him. But the last time I saw her she was all "not cut out for monogamy" this and "I think I want another boyfriend but not the dude I just cheated on [fiancé] with" that, so...Congrats?

So far we have been pretty drama free. If there will be any, it will likely hit tomorrow.

I just found a couple of prezzies I had hidden from myself (better now than next week, right?), so the wrapping continues. Karate is in 90 minutes. Hopefully KCD will drop CJ off so he can take class too.